The Goldsboro Broken Arrow

by Joel Dobson

In 1961, a Strategic Air Command bomber, a B-52, disintegrated in mid-air near Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Two H-bombs, each hundreds of times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, were thrown out, and started the arming process. This is the true story of that mission and the aftermath that could have been the worst man-made disaster in history. Eye-witnesses to the crash have unique stories to tell, as well as the last surviving crew member who made a miraculous escape, without an ejection seat. Also included is the story of the man who deactivated both 3.8 megaton bombs. And part of one of the bombs is still buried there, in a field near Faro, North Carolina.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

218 pages, Hardcover

First published August 29, 2011

Reviews

[Jon Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book a few years ago, but wanted to give it another read now, as I am planning to visit the Carolinas later this year. I hope to visit the site at Faro, NC where the remains of one of the thermonuclear bombs involved in the 1961 "broken arrow" accident described in this book are still buried under a farmer's field. The author provides detailed directions to the site in an appendix.

The author rambles a bit in covering the Goldsboro accident, and some material is presented several times, but setting these objections aside I found the detailed descriptions of the B-52 bomber, its weapons systems, and the airborne alert missions being flown in the 1960's to be fascinating. Overall I enjoyed the book and give it 4 out of 5 stars.

[Greg Parrott · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you can get over the lack of editing, the content is pretty good for something that happened within 10's of miles of the area I grew up in back in the mid-60's to mid-70's. There is ample opportunity to armchair quarterback this one, but the facts remain, three of five men did not come home that night in a situation that was just going to be bad no matter what way you looked at it. We got lucky.

I do find it interesting though that the author says there was never a fence or concrete poured to cover the site of bomb two. I've heard from a friend that he has stood on top of that concrete, so I'm a bit confused. Worthy of a little more research.

[Rachel Hackney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dobson did a significant amount of research for this book. There is some repetition as he conveys the material, but, overall, the quality of his work outweighs minor detractions. Having grown up in Eastern North Carolina, I especially appreciated his attention to detail. It is clear he worked hard to learn as much as possible about how close that part of the state came to nuclear devastation as a result of the midair breakup of a B-52 — which had two hydrogen bombs aboard — due to structural failure.

[Aaron VanAlstine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, well-researched history of a little-known Cold War event. All popular histories should follow this author's format.

[Steven Finn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. The level of detail takes you right into the ill fated plane. I was impressed how respectful the author was w/ all crew members. Specifically, each crew history, origin and role w/ military carefully explained. The author was quite thorough in the research and details w/ companion appendices covering federal aviation and military reports as well as local citizens. The book was exceptionally thought provoking. As an NC resident for 23 years, I made a trek to the site to augment the read. In sum, a book I didn’t want to put down!

[Terry Meier · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is always hype and distortion surrounding accidents with nuclear weapons. So it was good to read Mr. Dobson's sober, detailed account of the air crash and retrieval of the hydrogen bombs. He has done good research and laid out an understandable description. I think the comparisons to Chernobyl and Fukushima at the end were unnecessary, and distracted from the real story.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The problem with many self-published books is that they are written by people with a great deal of passion about a particular subject, but without much experience or knowledge of how to write it down. Such is the problem with The Goldsboro Broken Arrow. This is the story of the little-known event in 1961 in which two thermonuclear bombs, each packing as much destructive force as all the munitions used in all wars in history combined, fell out of a B-52 as it broke apart in mid-air and landed in rural Wayne County North Carolina. The destructive power of either of these bombs would have annihilated everything within an 8-mile radius and caused extensive structural damage up to 20 miles away to say nothing of the unfathomable loss of human life. It had the potential to be the largest man-made disaster in history but was averted by safety devices on the bombs themselves (although not as reliably as the Air Force believed they would). One of the bombs remains buried in the ground, too deep to recover with the arming mechanism removed. Joel Dobson is a retired Air Force officer who sets out to bring the story to the public. He comes armed with a first-hand knowledge of how the Air Force worked in the 1960's and an enthusiasm for telling the story. What he lacks (and needs desperately) is an editor to sort through his material and make it comprehensible and readable. Dobson breaks down the story chronologically and gives a very good background to the mission of the flight and the crew. He obviously has knowledge of how things worked, however he believes the reader also has much of his knowledge as well. In his listing of the which safety devices worked and which ones did not, there is nary an explanation of what they are and do. He also jumps around in the details, casually mentioning that the first bomb was rendered safe without going into any details about the process until the next chapter. There are also side bars which do not add anything of substance to the story and do not fit apart from the fact that Dobson thought it was interesting. One of the prime examples is his story of "The Lady With the Microphone." During the 50th anniversary commemoration, a television reporter (whose name Dobson apparently couldn't be bothered to get)interviewed one of the surviving crew men. Dobson reports on his observations of the interview giving his impression of "The Lady" and her reaction without getting any substance of the interview or fitting it into the section of the book dealing with the implications of nuclear power in which the story appears.
Overall, I'd say the book was worth reading for getting the facts of the incident, however I would love to see a professional writer tackle the assignment.